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Some may have thought last year's equity market structure debates would fade in the new year, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Starting January 6, BATS Global Markets released an open letter to market participants making recommendations on what it sees as three key issues.

A startup bitcoin trading marketplace founded by Wall Street veterans has enlisted Nasdaq to provide it with high-performance trading technology used by exchanges around the world. The marketplace, called Noble Markets, sought Nasdaq technology to lend legitimacy to its platform for the institutional clients it is aiming to attract.

To compete in fast-paced markets, traders often not only employ algorithmic trading strategies, but use algorithmic tools to calculate how well their algorithms are performing. Trading solutions vendors say they are seeing increasing interest in tools that alert traders throughout the day to market conditions that may warrant making adjustments to algorithms or even switching to different algorithms altogether before markets close.

A proposal that would require brokers offering retirement advice to adhere to fiduciary standards would be a sea change for the financial industry, requiring increased spending on compliance and record-keeping technology, both supporters and critics say. Where opposing sides of the proposed rules disagree is on how much or even whether investors stand to benefit.

Santander N.A. became the third bank to agree to loosen applicant screening for new account openings, and reports suggest more agreements will likely be forthcoming. The agreements forged with NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office come as the attorney general has been investigating whether overly strict use of applicant screening technology unfairly denies low-income applicants banking services for relatively minor infractions.

In 2014, the made available-to-trade deadline served as an official starting gun, kicking off electronic trading on newly-minted electronic swaps execution facilities in an industry where trading has historically been transacted bilaterally. Along with the new SEF trading came data about the transactions that occurred on them, granting more insight into a previously shrouded market.

A newly announced partnership between Japanese Softbank and IBM aims to build artificial intelligence to new levels, even introducing IBM's Watson to Softbank's robot Pepper. But first, IBM's Watson will have to learn Japanese.

In announcing its agreement to acquire wealth planning software company eMoney Advisor on Monday, Fidelity Investments clearly articulated that technology is central to its strategy for serving customers.

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